Color Psychology

A very important aspect of our visual experience is color. The

previous section on color described the color sensing mechanisms of
the eye and brain. Yet the nervous impulses of the color channel
don't only go to the brain. Some pulses travel to the pituitary and
pineal glands through the hypothalamus It is logical to assume that
what we see, especially color, can affect the systems of the body.
Psychologists and physiologists belive this to be true and are
investigating exactly what each color can do to our bodies.

Red

Physiological Effect: Red has been shown to increase blood

pressure and stimulate the adrenal glands. The stimulation of the
adrenals glands helps us become strong and increases our stamina.
Pink, a lighter shade of red, helps muscles relax.

Psychological Effect: While red has proven to be a color of vitality

and ambition it has been shown to be associated with anger.
Sometimes red can be useful in dispelling negative thoughts, but it
can also make one irritable. Pink has the opposite effect of red. Pink
induces feelings of calm, protection, warmth and nurture. This color
can be used to lessen irritation and aggression as it is connected
with feelings of love. Red is sometimes associated with sexuality,
whereas pink is associated with unselfish love.

Orange

Physiological Effect: Orange has proven to be a stimulus of the

sexual organs. Also, it can be benefitial to the digestive system and
can strengthen the immune system.

Psychological Effect: Orange has shown to have only positive affects on your
emotional state. This color relieves feelings of self-pity, lack of self-worth and
unwillingness to forgive. Orange opens your emotions and is a terrific antidepressant.
Yellow

Physiological Effect: Yellow has proven to stimulate the brain. This

stimulation can make you more alert and decisive. This color makes
muscles more energetic and activates the lymph system.

Psychological Effect: Similarly to Orange, Yellow is a happy and

uplifting color. It can also be associated with intellectual thinking:
discernment, memory, clear thinking, decision-making and good
judgment. Also aiding organization, understanding of different points
of view. Yellow builds self-confidence and encourages optimism.
However, a dull yellow can bring on feelings of fear.

Green

Physiological Effect: Green is said to be good for you heart. On a

physical and emotional, green helps your heart bring you physical
equilibrium and relaxation. Green relaxes our muscles and helps us
breathe deeper and slower.

Psychological Effect: Green creates feelings of comfort, laziness,

relaxation, calmness. It helps us balance and soothe our emotions.
Some attribute this to its connection with nature and our natural
feelings of affiliation with the natural world when experiencing the
color green. Yet, darker and grayer greens can have the opposite
effect. These olive green colors remind us of decay and death and
can actually have a detrimental effect on physical and emotional
health. Note that sickened cartoon characters always turned green.

Blue

Physiological Effect: In contrast to red, blue proves to lower blood

pressure. Blue can be linked to the throat and thyroid gland. Blue
also has a very cooling and soothing affect, often making us calmer.
Deep blue stimulates the pituitary gland, which then regulates our
sleep patterns. This deeper blue also has proved to help the skeletal
structure in keeping bone marrow healthy.

Psychological Effect: We usually associate the color blue with the

night and thus we feel relaxed and calmed. Lighter blues make us
feel quite and away from the rush of the day. These colors can be
useful in eliminating insomnia. Like yellow, blue inspires mental
control, clarity and creativity. However, too much dark blue can be
depressing.

Purple

Physiological Effect: Violet has shown to alleviate conditions such

as sunburn due to its purifying and antiseptic effect. This color also
suppresses hunger and balances the body's metabolism. Indigo, a
lighter purple, has been used by doctors in Texas as an anesthesia
in minor operations because its narcotic <"A soothing or numbing
agent.">qualities

Psychological Effect: Purples have been used in the care of

mental of nervous disorders because they have shown to help
balance the mind and transform obsessions and fears. Indigo is
often associated with the right side of the brain; stimulating intuition
and imagination. Violet is associated with bringing peace and
combating shock and fear. Violet has a cleansing effect with
emotional disturbances. Also, this color is related to sensitivity to
beauty, high ideals and stimulates creativity, spirituality and
compassion. Psychic power and protection has also been associated
with violet.

Brown

Psychological Effect: Brown is the color of the earth and ultimately home.
This color brings feelings of stability and security. Sometimes brown can also be
associated with withholding emotion and retreating from the world.
Black
Psychological Effect: While comforting and protective, black is
mysterious and associated with silence and sometimes death. Black
is passive and can prevent us from growing and changing.

White

Psychological Effect: White is the color of ultimate purity. This color brings
feelings of peace and comfort while it dispels shock and despair. White can be used to
give yourself a feeling of freedom and uncluttered openness. Too much white can give
feelings of separation and can be cold and isolation.

Gray
Psychological Effect: Gray is the color of independence and self-
reliance, although usually thought of as a negative color. It can be
the color of evasion and non-commitment (since it is neither black
nor white.) Gray indicates separation, lack of involvement and
ultimately loneliness.

Test Colors in Your Life:

The world seems to be slowly accepting the idea that colors
can affect our bodies and our moods. Yet, it is often found that
when someone is told how a certain color affects them they are
able to counteract such feelings by a sheer will to disbelieve. Try
to make note in your life how color do affect your moods and
your physical condition. Does you have a favorite shirt have a
certain affect on you because of its color? Do you wear that shirt
because of its effect on your emotions? Do not force yourself to
accept the conditions given above, yet notice when such
conditions do apply in your life.

Quick List

Red
Red creates excitement, displays strength, is used to express s*e*x, passion,
speed and danger. Use appropriately and it works extremely well.

Blue

This is the most popular color. Why? Because it builds trust, reminds people of sky
gazing/dreaming. Thus, builds trust, conveys reliability, a sense of belonging,
coolness (in the 1980's sense), refreshing and clean.

Yellow

We think of the sun and sunshine, its warmth, being cheerful and happy. Place it
together with blue and thoughts of sitting on the beach or looking out over the
ocean connect.

Orange

Orange isn't used much in marketing. On a computer screen it looses its hue.
When it is clearly visible that it is orange, it conveys playfulness, triggers child-like
behavior -- great in workshops if you want to take people to that place, it also
conveys warmth and vibrancy.

Green

When we think of green we associate with trees and grass. This brings up
associations with nature, freshness, coolness. It also means growth and
abundance. Money is green and we are automatically associating green with
prosperity.

Purple

Royal purple brings up pictures of royalty. Conveyed through the centuries from
religion and palace decorations isn't going to change any of our associations
today. Purple means spirituality and dignity as well.

Pink

Usually associated with femininity, it means soft, sweet, nurturing, and many
times security. The security of motherhood and all that it represents. As females
mature they sometimes lose their feminine side due to business stiffness. To bring
it back in surround you with pink for a year. Pink blouse, suit, watch, and
household items.

White

White and black aren't really called a color but we recognize them as such. White
represents pure, purity, virgin, clean, youthful and mild. This is why white
backgrounds work better than black backgrounds on a website.

Black

Black can trigger representation of the dark side of things in certain situations.
Usually when black is the dominant color on the page. It can also represent
sophistication, elegance, mystery. Black in clothing is seductive and thus will
represent the same thing in many marketing materials -- even though it is only a
mindful trigger and not a voiced one.

Gold

Gold is worth more than silver or copper but not diamonds. Since we've been
taught to associate gold with value, which is exactly what is triggered when we
see it in marketing materials. It can seldom be used in marketing materials
though because the color usually isn't duplicated well. On the Net it gets confused
with yellow a lot and what yellow represents.

Silver

Silver also represents prestige just like gold. It too, is a hard color to express on
the Internet or in printed materials. It sends signals of cold or scientific. This is
why silver kitchen appliances sell so well. It also represents cleanness in some
instances, especially kitchens. This isn't all the colors of the rainbow; they are the
most important ones in marketing. Use them wisely and they will make a
difference in sales -- or the type of response you are looking for.
Psychology color marketing

Color is a powerful means of setting emotion, which is the real driving force

behind decision making. It is hard to define an exact science for color

psychology because there are subjective meanings involved, both at a

personal and cultural level.

I spent many years as a decorative artist, creating rooms with paint effects,

before finally settling on a design career on the Internet. This experience

gives me some qualification, padded out by media specific research.

Light versus dark

In general, light backgrounds create tidier, uncluttered interfaces. On screen,

they can be tiring due to the glare emitted by monitors. You can see on this

page that I "mixed" a light greyish blue to sit behind the text. This reduces the

glare by a few degrees.

For shopping or reading information, I would favour clean light backgrounds,

but avoid dull greys, they strike the utilitarian feel of software and Windows

applications.

There are times when dark backgrounds will strike a cosy, nocturnal

feel, perhaps with an element of rebelliousness inherent. Younger

audiences will be more tolerant of "twilight" seductiveness than

older surfers.

Saturated colors

Saturated colors are pure and strong. They have the feel of coming

straight out of the tube and consequently lack sophistication. Avoid

them at all costs, they will speak of cheap, uncreative amateur

attempts to "bludgeon" visual relief into pages. They are very tiring

to the eye and look dreadful when combined or used on large areas

(heaven forbid). Huge bevelled buttons are a favourite area of

travesty for online saturated crime.

The psychology of the color blue

Deep blues create a feeling of the ether, a mysterious and enchanting space

that rolls out to the very edges of the imperceptible. I have used it to border

the central area of my page (most effective at 1024x768 screen resolution) in

order to really clean the white up (making an expensive feel) and to create a

sense of expansiveness. This in turn gets the effect of suggesting there is a

wider space out there that goes on possibly forever (the wonderful mystery of

cyberspace).
Hot color psychology

Tread with caution when using red or orange on your screen.

Deeper reds look classy and need a touch of black within them to

temper the cheap glare of saturated varieties. Using the border

effect could work, or as a sparky relief to clean whites. I have used

red for detail, balancing the blue and white to prevent blandness.

Orange must be controlled carefully, but might work en masse if tempered

with some thick black detail. It is a good food color, promoting a feeling of

hunger.

Green is serene

Use green to create serenity, but never use yellowish greens (lime)

for large areas. Blue greens will always speak class and restraint

(think silk and classical elegance). Actually, used carefully, lime

green could create kitsch 60's atmospherics (be afraid).

Mixing screen colors

In the world of paint, mixing black or umber (earth color) always tones down a

set of colors and can strike harmony between the most unlikely combinations.

Adding a touch of white can get a chalky feel not unlike the greyish blue
beneath the text. This is difficult to achieve on screen, especially if you are

starting with the web safe palette.

I use a graphics programme (Fireworks, but anything similar will do) to stretch

out sheets of black and white over my basic colors, and then make them

transparent by degrees. This gets a better effect than trying to mix them. This

will temper computer colors down beautifully if that is what you want to

achieve.

Blue is the color, links are the game...

There are some screen conventions that I find myself increasingly conforming

to. Using blue as a link color can get you better navigation results, because

there is a custom of familiarity to its use in this way. People like to feel at

home, and color conventions such as these only help.

Texture and color

Please don't use marble tiles or crude watermarks! This stinks of early

Frontpage syndrome and freeware web programmes. Ever stripped wallpaper

and found that dull greyish 50's and 60's slightly embossed stuff two layers

beneath? Always make sure your text is totally readable on your background.

Limit your palette

Don't cram too many colors into your screen, provide a presentation to your
subject in an evocative but subservient way. Create the right atmosphere with

your color choice, but keep the subject in the foreground.

Make your impression quickly

Research shows that you have between 8 to 20 seconds maximum to

persuade a prospect to stay on your site. When you walk into a shop, or even

peer into it from outside, think about how the general tone of its overall

appearance effects you. Visual appeal is your first weapon, use it wisely.

Art not science

You may be thinking, this article has not really addressed specific nuts and

bolts, what has it told me? The best you can hope to get is a feel for the

psychology of color, an approach that you can grasp intuitively. Try to start

your understanding from this perspective, not intellectually, the difference will

be a distinguishing one.